The Green
Rain lashed the tiny port window, driven wild by the howling wind. The cabin, already a claustrophobic pillbox on the best of days, was a living nightmare. Jane contemplated reaching around in the dark for something to sick up in, then decided against it as a massive wave smashed into the side of their ship. Thoughts whirled through her head in concert with the storm outside, though only the occasional whimper crossed her lips.
"Why did I ever leave London?" She knew why.
"Why didn't I just keep saving and take passage on one of the newer, supposedly more resilient steam-powered ironclads that had begun to cater to the civilian population?" Because the money was running out, not coming in.
"Why couldn't I have just been satisfied with the life I had? Why not just live as Ms. Westhampton despite his… tendencies." Alright now that is just crazy, Jane. You can't just sit here going in circles until you die.
She roused herself from the dark thoughts and stood up in the dark room. Neither candles nor lanterns could stay lit in these conditions, she would have to wait for lightning and quickly orient herself by the light of the flash. As if on cue, a thunderous crash reverberated through the night and revealed every inch of wood that wasn't littered with her scattered belongings.
Instantly adrenaline was pumping through her veins, although fear kept her jaw locked tight. There was no delay at all on that one. In her hyper-focused state it almost felt like she could hear a shockwave punching an unnatural hole in the roiling Atlantic, with greedy black waters instantly rushing to refill it. What if one of those hits the ship? Where even are we? I know that we were still weeks from East London, but this storm has been going on for so long that we could be anywhere.
The captain had briefly engaged her yesterday to assure her that he still had at least some control and was striving east with all of The Tubaiste's remaining power in order to find land of any kind to wait out the tempest. His tone told the truth though, they were almost entirely at the mercy of nature's wrath and there was very little chance of survival. She comforted herself with the thought that the storm had come out of the west, and while it often spun them about in all directions there was perhaps the slightest hope that they would eventually wreck upon a beach along the African interior.
Her mind raced with these thoughts even as she replayed the imprint of her surroundings that was already succumbing back to blackness. I have to get out to the deck. She didn't know why, just that if she didn't leave this room, it might start to do more than simply feel like a coffin. Her first tentative steps turned into a headlong stumble as the deck lurched beneath her, but the doorknob that she had been aiming for stabbed painfully into her stomach.
After a minute of scrambling and last-second nerve-gathering, she undid the lock and the door immediately slammed open, ripped out of her gloved hand by the wind. A wall of rain that felt like steel pelted her skin and she considered turning around. But she'd come this far so she might as well take the first step, and so she did.
The time for lady-like attire had long since been washed away by the raging storm, and Jane was clothed as closely from head to foot as could be, while still leaving room for movement. A loose sleeved shirt had been laced closely at the neck and the wrists and waist were tightened by improvised string circling around the garment. A pair of cotton trousers, acquired used and self-tailored to fit back in England, reached down to her ankles. Knee length waterproofed boots, buckled closely to the calf, offered the best protection of all. She had abandoned the idea of a cloak or any kind of open head covering last week. Instead, a thick pea jacket from the crew's supplies was the best option for keeping her core warm, and a heavy bandana tied over her mouth and nose seemed to be better than nothing.
Of course, every inch was soaked almost instantly, but that was inevitable. Squinting her eyes against the pelting rain, Jane searched for something familiar to orient herself. An endless expanse of darkness greeted her eyes at first. Her ears were assailed with a cacophony of sounds, seemingly magnified by the lack of visual perception. The wooden galley, magnificent months ago in port when Jane first saw her, screamed in protest to the violence being done to her. Seemingly every plank and railing was creaking or banging against its neighbor. The torque of the storm was twisting her apart, and every few seconds another towering wave arrived to smash itself against the weary hull. Shouts of the invisible crew rose in the dark, from no coherent direction at all. The wind grabbed and twisted their words until they were as incoherent as the tempest itself.
Jane desperately rode the heaving ship, ignoring the protests from her stomach, and after a few up and downs felt that she might be able to take a step. Another peal of lightning, thankfully not right on top of the ship, had illuminated the deck and given her a destination. She had seen a group of figures in the aft decks, scrambling to the sound of barely understood orders. The captain should be among that crew. He had instituted a rule strictly forbidding anyone above decks without his or the first mate's presence, to keep order and safety as best he could.
However, at the same moment she moved her left foot, two absolutely gigantic waves impacted the ship on each side, and she was thrown off her feet and into the night. A scream parted her lips for the first time and she reach out frantically, searching for something, anything, to keep her from falling into the frothing waters. For a moment there was nothing and Jane was hanging in space, then she was slammed into a massive, hard object and pain shot throughout every inch of her body. It was the deck, and her arm was tangled up against the railing, inches from nothingness.
Before she could move, there was a massive crack of snapping rigging, echoing impossibly loudly against the ongoing cacophony. Shouts followed, and she realized that one of the furled sails must have come lose. Suddenly whipping out of the darkness was a flailing rope, pressed against her and the slick railing that was the only separation between Jane and certain death. Jane shook her head, willing back the strength from moments before that had deserted her in the face of the tempest's fury. Her hands instinctively gripped the rope and she realized that the other end was still attached to something. Hopefully the ship. She thought macabrely as her hands scrambled for purchase on the slick braided cord.
After a few futile tries, during which the ship mercifully rode over and down the raging waves instead of through, the end of the rope had somehow gotten wrapped around her waist and desperately tied in what she hoped was a secure knot. Pulling herself slowly along the deck, she stayed low and followed the mystery lifeline back to its source, wrapping it around her as she went. When she reached the end, a lightning flash illuminated the deck and the bottom of her stomach dropped out.
It was the broken mast. Just a few yards away the out of control boom was swaying dangerously, a deadly force and its massive weight would certainly sweep her out to see if it caught her. The crewmen she'd seen earlier were close, and they saw her too in the afterglow left by the most recent strike. Voices called out and she could almost understand them.
"It's me, Jane Porter!" She yelled futilely, waving her free arm while the other remained twisted in the rope, holding herself against the mast. The adrenaline that had been keeping her focused and tensed like a drug started to seep away, leaving a strange, irrational relief in its place. Ok, now as soon as they get here- And then all sound and darkness vanished in an instantaneous avalanche of numbing whiteness.
Part 2
The sun was what woke Jane first. Blazing heat beat down on the skin that was now exposed through the tatters that remained of her clothes. Water. She tried to get the word out but her lips were cracked and her throat was too dry, so only a painful croak emerged. Awareness started to spread through her, and she realized that she must be alive. Sand. I'm on a beach? Where's the wind? And rain? The ship!
She tried to rise quickly but her body was still cramped and unresponsive and she collapsed back after only a small twisting motion. She realized that she could see, and her eyes began to process the unknown surroundings. An unexpected pressure on her arm turned out to be the rope, still coiled tightly but completely blackened and charred. She was pushed up against a trunk of warped wood that must be the mast. The base of it extended down to the water about 20 feet away, but the opposite tip was missing, cracked off in a violent twisting of splinters and fragments as if hit by an explosion.
The beach extended quite a ways in both directions, curling out of sight miles away. It was a sparkling expanse of untouched sand, uniform and blindingly lit up by the sun overhead. Behind her was a jungle, with underbrush rising up thickly in an impenetrable wall of greens and mossy browns. The water, green and calm, gently lapped up along the beach, with not a single feature or ship marring the endless expanse all the way to the horizon.
Turning away from the tantalizing ocean that has taunted every poor shipwrecked soul in history with its false promise of relief, Jane clawed weakly at the rope. It had been nearly seared into her flesh and the first tug sent a spear of agony shooting up her body, jerking her head back and ripping a silent scream of agony from her still non-functioning throat. She gritted her teeth and willed the pain to subside. After a few moments she was able to try again, this time more cautiously. It didn't help, but she was ready and kept working through the misery.
After nearly an eternity of slow, deliberate effort, she was able to disentangle from the ruined mast. The sleeve on her left arm was almost completely gone, and the flesh below wasn't in much better shape. The rope had branded itself from her shoulder to wrist, coiling around and around like a constricting snake. Gingerly she touched the tortured skin, but almost in reverence. This must have been what kept me to the mast after I lost consciousness. A slight shiver ran down her spine at the sight of the frayed end and missing loops that she thought had been tightly tied around her waist. The ship must have been hit directly by a bolt, right on the mast I was clinging to. What could have happened to everyone else?
But after finally standing to try to start a search, Jane's body cried out in need once again. There would be time to find other people later, right now she needed water, and food. And a proper night's sleep. And clothes, and a bed, and a hot meal, and- Shaking her head, she stomped on that line of thinking.
"There's no one around to feel sorry for you, it seems. So start walking unless you want to die on this paradise of a beach, Jane Porter." She spoke out loud to give herself more courage, despite her throat still causing only about every third word to be understandable. Almost miraculously, her feet started moving and she made her way to the jungle's edge where the ground was firmer and easier to walk on. There wasn't much left of her boots, but something's better than nothing, right?
The sun was still rising above the jungle to her left, which meant that there was beautiful, blissful shade to hide under. Jane made her way south on a whim, noticing that the coastline sloped up into a hill and cliff a little ways on. It wasn't ideal to climb uphill, but she needed to be able to see more around her to find a water source, so there was no choice.
Despite its deceptive closeness, it took her almost half a day to reach the top of the expanse because her body still wasn't capable of much speed. The peak was higher than she realized, which meant that it jutted up just barely above the thick jungle canopy. As Jane had reached the top facing west, the ocean stretched out in front of her. Unchanged from her initial impression, it showed no signs of the vicious storm which had swept The Tubaiste helplessly along for who knows how long. It was green, dark and unbroken except for tiny crests on the waves that broke rhythmically against the cliff below her. She desperately scanned the horizon for any sign of humanity or even life. There was none. Sighing, she turned around.
Oh my god. What… even thoughts flew out of her mind at the sight before her. It was like nothing she'd ever seen before. An entire world stretched out inland, a seemingly unbroken expanse of trees and leaves of a thousand variations. The wind swayed gently through the tops, causing a ripple effect that looked so much like waves that for a moment she felt adrift at sea, surrounded on all sides by endless water and gentle currents. The contours of the land rose up in the distance, creating a bowl that cut off her vision of this new world, completely untouched by civilization for what might just be all of history.
As Jane stood transfixed by the natural beauty of the land so unlike her native England, a wave of sound washed over her. Hearing the sounds of life, details started to separate themselves from the no longer monolithic expanse. Clusters of birds stretched their myriad colored wings and flew from perch to perch. Swarms of butterflies emerged and sparkled in the sun. The chirping of insects rose to a steady, sometimes overwhelming buzz. Far off trees occasionally shook with movement that couldn't be simply the wind. And the flowers! Not a thousand, this jungle seems closer to a million different species. Incredible!
Suddenly a new sound reached her ears. Is that running water? Definitely not the ocean. Faced with the prospect of leaving the shore and descending down into the new world she'd discovered, Jane hesitated. There will be wild animals, beasts. This is certainly somewhere in Africa still. Elephants, snakes, sloths, monkeys… maybe even gorillas! But also great cats, and other predators. Can I survive? But then one of her knees wobbled, and suddenly every inch of her body was crying out for relief from the events of yesterday. Her throat burned with thirst and she felt empty with hunger. There was no choice, she couldn't stay here in the sand.
Gingerly, and with a wary eye to the trees that would soon tower above her, Jane made her way into the green.